Macy's Parade in popular culture
This is a list of pop-culture references to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Film * The 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street begins with the parade, as do most of its remakes. The film centers around the real Santa Claus being hired to work at the Macy's department store after its own Santa impersonator gets drunk during the parade. NBC, in its telecasts of the parade, used to show the original 1947 film on Thanksgiving afternoon, following its coverage of the parade and the National Dog Show, until 2009 when it lost the television rights to the film. *In Somebody Killed Her Husband, various Macy's parade props appear in a warehouse scene. * In Aladdin, the parade scene shown during the "Prince Ali" musical number is a reference to the Macy's Parade. * In Broadway Danny Rose, a scene of the 1982 Parade at CPW was featured, with the balloons of Snoopy, Linus, Underdog, Superman, Olive Oyl, Kermit, Bullwinkle and Woody Woodpecker appearing. Mickey Mouse , however, was not seen for unknown reasons. * In the 1993 animated film We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Louie disguises the dinosaurs as Macy's Parade floats/balloons, in order to prevent mass panic while they are journeying to the American Museum of Natural History. Balloons such as Spider-Man, Aviator Snoopy, Woody Woodpecker, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and an off-model Quik Bunny are seen. Rex hears all the children wishing to see real dinosaurs, but when he sees an Sinclair Oil Dinosaur balloon come out, he mistakes it for being real, handshakes it with his claws, and causes it to run out of air. The audience realizes that live dinosaurs are among them and panic, so the dinosaur gang escape and flee to Central Park, while simultaneously being pursued by the police. * The ''Ghostbusters'' reboot from 2016 has the new team of Ghostbusters fight a haunted balloon parade which includes several Macy's balloons from the 1920s and 1940s. Television * An early example of television promotion was in 1964, when an episode of Linus the Lionhearted helped to promote the then-new balloon of the titular character. * in the Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Jingle Bells Affair", The 1966 Parade is Featured * In the Seinfeld episode "The Mom and Pop Store," Elaine wins a spot on the parade route for her boss, Mr. Pitt, to hold the Woody Woodpecker balloon. * Long after Underdog was retired from the parade, his balloon cameoed in NBC's sitcom Friends, of which the first Thanksgiving-centered episode centered around the accidental release of that balloon. * In The Simpsons episode "Bart vs. Thanksgiving," Homer is seen watching the parade, with cameo appearances by the balloons of his son Bart, Underdog, and Bullwinkle. * In 2008, a Coca-Cola CGI ad aired in the United States during Super Bowl XLII. The commercial's plot centered around the Underdog balloon chasing a Coke bottle-shaped balloon through New York City, along with a balloon of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy, a show that was never represented in the parade. The advertisement won a Silver Lion Award at the annual Lions International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France that year, and the clip of the commercial with the Griffin balloon was featured in a Macy's commercial in October 2008 (along with clips from Miracle on 34th Street, Seinfeld, I Love Lucy, and other media where the Macy's department store was mentioned). * A Thanksgiving episode of Family Guy references the aforementioned Super Bowl commercial when Stewie is shown watching the parade and noticing a balloon of himself in the parade. * In an episode of Family Guy, Brian, Stewie, Peter and Chris are watching a bootleg version of the Parade, with parodies of Mickey Mouse, SpongeBob SquarePants and Clifford appearing. * In one episode of The Muppets, Kermit the Frog mentions the balloon version of himself that appears in the parade. * The MAD episode "The Blunder Games" includes a scene where the Charlie Brown and Spider-Man balloons are shown punching and kicking each other. * In the MAD episode "The Bourne Leg-A-Turkey", the segment ends with the Talking Turkey riding a motorcycle to freedom, only to find out the road is closed as the Parade begins, with Tom Turkey making a cameo. * In the TV movie Arthur's Perfect Christmas, an Arthur balloon can be spotted during one of the aardvark's fantasies, which bears a resemblance to the real Macy's Parade Balloon. * A commercial for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (Rugrats) shows a scene of a Cheesasaurus Rex parade balloon holding a box of mac-n-cheese, being handled by a few macaroni noodles. A teal rubber duck can also be spotted behind him. * In the show Big City Greens, a parody of the first Garfield balloon can be seen in the episode "Parade Day". Music * Green Day applied the title "Macy's Day Parade" to one of the songs in their 2000 studio album Warning. Though it begins with the lyric "Today's the Macy's Day Parade," this song is not about the parade itself, nor does its corresponding music video contain any visual references to the parade. Category:Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Category:Parade Trivia